19 June (Part 1) - Scrap metal
A
reader sent me this photo and asked when was there a bus lane on
Harrow Manorway? The answer is from the year 2000 until 1st March 2017 when
the Crossrail contractors moved in. Since then
I have passed the redundant sign hundreds of times and stopped noticing it.
Oddly enough the bus lane was something I queried with Bexley Council
when it was installed. What was the justification for a 150 metre long bus lane
on a road which sees no traffic congestion (those were the days!) and could not
possibly improve bus times?
The answer was that it was not installed in order to benefit buses but as a ruse
to double the parking fines for motorists who waited for train passengers above
the old railway station. (Bus lane fines were double those of yellow line offences.)
Once again Bexley Council was breaking the law and doing its best to cheat
residents. Nothing much changes.
The sign has been redundant since the flyover was reconfigured for Crossrail but it is not the
oldest redundant sign; locally at least, that prize goes to the New Road Layout
sign underneath the flyover on Abbey Road. That has
been there since 2007
and still is.
Maybe Bexley’s rotten Council could offer a scrap merchant a licence to go around and collect them all?